Why do “they” blame Nader?

 

Let me start out by saying, there are two distinct groups of "they", each
with their own reasons and agendas for claiming that Ralph Nader lost
the election for Al Gore in 2000.

The most visible and virulent, of course, are the sour puss Democrats. I
understand how they feel. Which is why I have no respect for them
anymore.

Disclosure:
I was raised working class in Detroit, when unions were strong. I don't
think I even met a Republican for my first eighteen years. Certainly my
parents, their friends, and everyone within 50 miles of the trailer
park we lived in was Democrat. Until 1996, I voted as a knee-jerk
Democrat.

So let's get down to the nitty-gritty.

The presidential election of 2000 was decided in Florida.
Almost 6,000,000 people voted. Al Gore lost to George W. by 537 votes.
There were massive irregularities in the election, including 54,000
alleged felons who were disenfranchised of the right to vote. Most
turned out to not be felons at all, and 54% of them were
African-American, a demographic highly likely to have voted for Al Gore.
Also, there were all sorts of problems with chads and double-voting,
usually attributable to weirdness with vote tallying and the ballots
themselves.

Having said that . . .

97,421 people voted for Ralph Nader. It is assumed that had these 97,421 people
not voted for Nader, they would have voted for Al Gore and he would
have swept the election.

Wrong!

But even before I get into that, why don't they rail against the 538 registered Democrats
who were too lazy, too drunk, too preoccupied, too busy shacking up
with some honey, too hooked on some soap opera or sitcom, or maybe too
stoned, to get off their lard asses and vote for Al? Why pick on people
who made a considered, deeply principled
decision to take a stand against the rabid conservatism of the right __
aka the Republicans __ AND against the sell-out and betrayal of the
progressive left by the Democrats?

It's no secret. Bill Clinton and Al Gore were responsible for tilting so far to
the political right they gutted the Democratic Party of its core values.
True progressives __ the kind of people who responded to Nader's message __ comprising
the 97,421 and voted for him in Florida, were finally fed up with the
Democratic Party, its pandering to big business, its pathetic cowering
to bubble heads like Newt Gingrich.

If Ralph Nader had not been on the ticket, most of those 97,421 would have stayed
home. Because they __ like yours truly __ had had it up to their
widow's peak with the Beltway's business-as-usual, resented Clinton's
pivot to the right, and were stunned if not horrified by the corporate
takeover of the Democratic Party.

I admit I was charmed by Clinton. I loved his humor, his persona, his sax playing.
He was __ and still is __ a brilliant speaker, a real charmer. But
remember, this is the man who led the charge for deregulating Wall
Street and the abolition of Glass-Steagall, initiated the subversion of
the social safety net with his aggressive attack on welfare, and foisted
on a gullible nation the horrible trade agreement known as NAFTA .

Yes ... NAFTA!

I remember watching the debate between Al Gore __ who by then I found both
articulate and in his robotic way extremely mesmerizing __ and Ross
Perot. I recall my reflexive and now embarrassing rooting for Al,
wanting him to put that ugly little jerk in his place. But guess what?
Al was wrong! I was wrong! Ross Perot was dead on the money. NAFTA has
turned out to be, just as Mr. Perot predicted, a very bad deal for America.

That was just the tip of the iceberg. Much of the Clinton-Gore agenda __ Mr.
Gore's commitment to the environment being the commendable exception __
turned this country completely around. But in the wrong direction!

When the 2000 campaign got underway, many of us were getting wise to this.
Growing numbers of voters were becoming restless, disenchanted. I sat in
the huge coliseum in Portland, Oregon where 10,000 people paid to hear Ralph Nader speak. That's right, we paid for tickets like we were going to a Sting concert. That's how desperate people were becoming for a presidential candidate who talked straight and made sense.

So let me take this a step further. Instead of blaming principled voters who used
the ballot to make a genuine cry for real change, why not blame the
Democratic Party for making a challenge from Mr. Nader a necessity?
Why not blame all of the knee-jerk Democrats who maintained their
steadfast, unprincipled and unthinking loyalty, despite the fact that
the party was moving further and further to the right, abandoning the
unions, abandoning their core working and middle class constituencies?
The country then deserved and still deserves a real alternative, a
choice which aligns with the vast majority of the voting public on most
key issues. The Nader phenomenon was created by the gaping void left when the Democratic Party become the Republican Party Lite.

So Democrats, blame yourselves for Al Gore losing the 2000 election! Don't
scapegoat a man who has given forty years of his life to unselfish
public service, has been a model of integrity, has always been open and
honest about his views, never sold out, and has been rewarded with
ridicule, mockery and every vile form of abuse our shallow and snide
media clowns could whip up between games of Foosball and sniffing
celebrity panties.

At the beginning of this article, I said there were two "they" factions who
propagate the Spoiler Nader myth. The second set of "theys" is a little
more stealthy. Please pay close attention, folks.

I'll tell you who else benefits from this false narrative. The conservatives! The right wing! 
Because if the public can be convinced that the choice is only between
Tweedledee and Tweedledum __ as Nader characterized the
Democrat-Republican option __ there will never be a credible threat to
their agenda.

The only occasion Democratic candidates __ generally fairly privileged and connected
individuals who live more in the stratospheric upper reaches of society
__ give notice to the needs of the working and middle classes are when
they are challenged from the left. That's why the New Deal became the
agenda of the Democratic Party. The country was in turmoil and
socialists and even communists were viewed as a legitimate threat at the
polls. Same thing at the end of the 19th Century with the rise of the Progressives. When there is what is perceived as a real alternative to oligarchic, monopolistic, and corporate control, the Democratic Party must embrace progressive policies or get their butts kicked at election time. It's pure politics. 

But . . . if everyone can be convinced that voting for a third party is throwing away their votes, voila!
No threat from the left. The Democratic Party makes its gradual but
certain migration to the comfort and safety of Daddy Warbucks. Big money
talks and politicians walk. But with their backs to ordinary citizens
like us. With Citizens United and the recent McCutcheon decision by the
Supreme Court, that is truer than ever before in our history.

So the other they __ the right wing of this country __ also want you to think there has never been or never will be a progressive option. "See what happens. You vote for those kooks and you end up throwing the election!"

I'd really like to think we're smarter than this. But it's not encouraging.
Third-party voting is a tough way to go. I voted Green the last three
presidential elections. As a result I suffer the constant taunts about
throwing my vote away and being an air-headed chump. But I don't for one
second believe that I in any way furthered the evil juggernaut of the
right wing in this country. I like to think __ perhaps too
idealistically __ I'm just part of an awakening, a vanguard for what
will turn politics in America around and restore something resembling
the ideal of democracy to our nation.

There's one other benefit . . .

I can sleep at night.


[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

When Hope Becomes Hype

 

I don't hate government.

I don't hate Obama per se.

I am against corruption.

I intensely hate lying.

I especially hate it when campaign promises are made with what I take to
be sincerity and genuine caring, then are with cool dispassion and
complete lack of remorse broken.

Having said that . . .

What happens when hope turns out to be hype?

Here is a sampling of the record of Obama and his administration since he took office:

• Carried out military interventionism in Libya without Congressional approval.
• Gave a no-bid contract to Halliburton cronies – just like Bush did.
• Has an administration full of lobbyists, after promising he wouldn’t have any.
• Has close ties to Wall Street, but pretends to support Main Street.
• Broke his promise to close Guantanamo Bay.
• Instigated conflict in Ukraine, then lied to the American public about it.
• Continues to support with aid and armaments extremist factions of al Qaeda terrorists in Syria.
• Supported the $700 billion TARP corporate-welfare bailout just like Bush.
• Waged the biggest war against medical marijuana of any president, which was the opposite of what he had promised.
• Nominated the six-time tax cheater and Wall Street insider, Timothy
  Geithner, to head the government agency that enforces the tax laws and
  oversees banking policy.
• Gave tax dollars to AIG executives, then pretended to be outraged about it.
• Expanded Bush’s unconstitutional government faith based programs.
• Supported Bush’s unconstitutional Patriot Act, signing NDAA into law New Years Eve 2011.
• Increased the national debt more in one term than Bush did in two, contrary to campaign pledges.
• Continues and defends Bush’s policy of unconstitutional, indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without filing any charges.
• Continues and defends Bush’s policy of unconstitutional, warrantless wiretapping.
• Has avoided prosecution of Wall Street criminals.
• Had four U.S. citizens killed without judicial process.
• Using drones has murdered over 2,000 people, at least a third of which are innocent civilians and include women and children.
• Illegally put thousands of guns into hands of criminals via Operation Fast and Furious.
• Falsely has claimed “This is the most transparent administration in history” when astute observers judge it to be the least.
• Had “off the record” meetings with lobbyists, against his promise to reduce the influence of lobbyists.
• Broke his promise to put health care negotiations on C-SPAN.
• Supported new bailouts for speculators who caused housing bubble.
• Used “off the books” funding for military interventionism, something he was extremely critical of during his first campaign.
• Falsely claimed he would wait five days before signing bills.
• Gave tax dollars to campaign contributors and lobbyists, and falsely claimed the money was for “green energy”.
• Rewarded his fundraisers by giving them federal jobs, after promising “the most sweeping ethics reform in history.”
• Falsely promised “stimulus” spending would be transparent.
• Promised relief from the onerous effects of GATT and NAFTA but now
  is secretly promoting TPP and TTIP,  two of the worst trade agreements
  in history. TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids.
• Allows campaign contributors to give lobbyists access to the White House.
• Falsely has stated his campaigns were not funded by large donors.
• Approved giving 20 F-16 fighter jets to a Sharia dictatorship.
• Has Freedom of Information Act record worse than Bush’s.
• According to Ralph Nader, Obama is a “war criminal” who is “more aggressive, more illegal worldwide” than Bush.
• Nominated Jack Lew to be Secretary of the Treasury, a man who had
  participated in what Obama himself had called “the biggest tax scam on
  record.”
• Purchased 2,717 mine resistant armor protected vehicles for use on civilian streets in the U.S.
• Using the Espionage Act has persecuted numerous whistleblowers.
• Oversees and encourages the spying on U.S. citizens innocent of any
  crime as well as on foreign dignitaries, many of whom are our allies.
• In direct opposition to freedom of the press guaranteed in the
  Constitution, harasses and threatens journalists with prosecution.

If this were the record of a Republican __ a Romney or a McCain __ I would be
angry and very frustrated, but it would hardly come as a surprise.

That this is the record of a man and a political party zealously promoting the
appearance of progressive values, claiming with high rhetoric to have
the welfare of the country and its people at heart, is infuriating. It is a callous and most certainly calculated betrayal.

We were told we were being given hope.

It turned out to be hype.

[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

The ‘H’ Word

 

It used to be imprudent or just plain vulgar to say the 'F' word.

Now we just say it . . . fuck.

It's such common parlance, so acceptable, it's become the language of diplomacy,
as with the policy declaration by Deputy Secretary of State Victoria 'F**k the EU' Nuland about the crisis she and her neocon friends precipitated in the Ukraine. 

But I'll tell you a word we don't dare say anymore.

You know the one . . .

The 'H' word.

Sometimes it's written as 'h*pe' or 'ho*e'.

We used to actually use the word often. It was on everyone's lips.

 

But after President Obama __ or I should say Brand Obama __ and the
corporate lapdog Democrats made it central to their 2008 and 2012
campaigns, then turned it into both the brunt of cruel jokes and the
poisonous pill of despair, it became as popular as leprosy, not even
whispered anymore in polite company.

Who wants to cry in public?

They sure got us all wide-eyed and teary-eyed with all those 'H*pe and Change'
bumper stickers and campaign posters. People started believing things
would turn around and America would get back on track, after eight
tortuous years immersed in the stupidity, boorishness and arrogance of
George W.

Then this phalanx of feel-good experts and spin doctors responsible for the
propaganda juggernaut we experienced __  especially during the heady
days running up to the 2008 election __ took the faith and good will,
the higher aspirations of the American public and threw them in the
toilet, took several healthy dumps on our heartfelt desire to embrace
the American Dream. They even continue cynically to this day to peddle
fresh variants of their snide charm-offensive h*pe-and-change
trash-talk, assuming the public is none the wiser, and still thirsty for
the arsenic-spiked lemonade of their duplicity.

This is shameful on so many levels. After the horror of George W. and his band
of blatant liars, the ignorant, delusional, self-serving oligarchs who
mockingly led us into a false war, bankrupted the economy, reversed
fifty years of progress toward becoming a humane and sane society, we
had all but given up. Then the sun burst through the storm clouds of our
collective misery and revulsion. People were so engorged with h*pe,
many even heralded Obama as the new Messiah. Okay. Okay. That was over
the top. Yet not just America, but the entire world was at his feet,
expecting this man who spoke with such eloquence, such passion,
sincerity, intelligence, to deliver on the noble promises contained in
his books, Dreams From My Father and Audacity of Hope,
given in soaring oratorical performances at his campaign rallies, in
his inaugural address, and any number of speeches given during the first
few months of his presidency __ most notably the one delivered June 4,
2009 at Cairo University titled "A New Beginning".
Many of us, arguably an overwhelming majority, naively thought this
heralded a new age built around peace and prosperity spanning the entire
globe, and the ascendancy of justice and respect for others.
And what do we have?  You know . . .

Mr. Nobel Peace Prize has proven to be more trigger happy than the sneering
gun-slinging Texan he replaced, Mr. Transparency is far more secretive
and presides over a regime that spies on everyone, the jails
are bulging with more and more people of color __ but none of the
bankers and financial predators who crashed the world economy in 2008 __
the rich just get richer, the poor get poorer, the banks are looting
the treasury, corporations are out of control, fracking is out of
control, global warming is out of control, wealth inequality is out of
control, poisoning our food, air and water are out of control, the
police are out of control, the imperial neocon warmongers are out of
control, the military is out of control, maybe everything is out of control.

Or more accurately, it's in control of the wrong people.

So now the 'H' word is a very dirty word. It's too charged with treachery, the
violation of the best intentions and wholesome expectations of a lot of
very good but obviously gullible people. No one dares utter it without
everyone within earshot going into convulsions of indignation or crying
fits of despair.

There is, however,  another 'H' word I'm hearing more and more these days . . .

Hypocrisy.



[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

America Has Become Anti-American

 

Because I live in Japan and post articles which are critical of America, I am
often accused of being anti-American. The truth is both
counter-intuitive and extremely disturbing.

I haven't changed ... America certainly has.

America has become anti-American!

The Constitution guarantees freedom of the press. Yet reporters are now being intimidated and threatened with arrest and incarceration. Whistleblowers who try to expose fraud, corruption, and waste in government by making available in public news media forums information of value to American citizens, are likewise harassed and prosecuted.

The Constitution requires the government to promote the general welfare. Yet the benefits of our economic wealth are accruing to a tiny elite while poverty is still pervasive and the majority of the population scrambles to make ends meet. Among the 34 highly developed nations in the world, America ranks 17th
in terms of life satisfaction __ happiness __ the key factors for its
low ranking being massive income inequality and excessively long hours
spent on average in the work place. In terms of health care and life expectancy, for the richest country in the world, America ranks abysmally low.

The Constitution guarantees equal representation of its citizens. Yet, the electoral system has become corrupted by unverifiable e-voting, grotesque gerrymandering of districts, and torrents of money in politics, which only guarantees the voices of average voters will be drown out and their participation in our democracy marginalized.

The Constitution guarantees the freedom from unwarranted search and seizure,
and right of trial by jury before peers, yet starting in 2001 by using
the endless War on Terror as an excuse, patently unconstitutional legislation has been effected __ Patriot Acts I and II, FISA, and the NDAA which Obama signed into law on New Years Eve 2011
while America was preoccupied with celebrating the holidays __ now
placing every citizen at risk for arbitrary arrest and indefinite
detention with no access to legal counsel.

The Constitution guarantees equality before the law. Yet rich elite white
collar criminals wreak havoc on our economy breaking countless laws and go free, while petty crimes by regular citizens __ especially people of color __ result in harsh and disproportionate prosecution and punishment.

The Constitution specifies that the power to make war is exclusively the responsibility of Congress. Yet the president as Commander-in-Chief often ignores the constitutional limits as well as the War Powers Act, using the military purely at his own discretion. This abuse of power results in unnecessary deaths of our citizens in uniform, while at the same time counter-productively foments enormous animosity and mistrust throughout the world.


Our legal framework via the Posse Comitatus Act has long barred the use of the military for law enforcement but vast and sophisticated surveillance by federal security agencies, the militarization of local police forces, and their handshake agreements with federal agencies, puts us all under the iron fist of enforcement agencies like the NSA and operatives of the Pentagon itself.

I could go on. But that might offend some people.

Sometimes the truth can be so anti-American.


[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]



 

VIDEO BLOG: OMG . . . I woke up black!

Boy, was I surprised the other day when I woke up as a black man.

Then while I’m in the other room trying to sort this thing out, I get this message on my answering machine from some guy named Clive Bundy.

"Hey, negro man. You'd be better off a slave. Come to Nevada and you can live in the back of my barn. Think about it."

But the plot thickens.

Apparently my voter registration card has been revoked.

This letter says that to reinstate my voting privileges, I have to provide a birth certificate, proof of U.S. citizenship, blood and urine samples, DNA from my natural parents and at least four aunts and uncles, a copy of a recent utility bill, a notarized letter of commendation from my high school counselor, two color photos taken within the last twenty minutes, a clean bill of health from my doctor showing I’m not lactose intolerant, and a list ten references, five of which must be active members of my local Kiwanis Club.

Finally, it says I also have to pay two outstanding parking tickets for a car I never even owned.  Hmm.

Alright alright, I guess I understand. I mean . . . it’s important to maintain the integrity of the voting process, especially in a democracy, where the voice of the people weighs in so heavily in shaping public policy.

[ Laughter ]

Come on! A little sarcasm never hurt anyone.

But they always say, every vote counts.

And that's why tens of thousands of black people can't vote anymore.

That's why when those dyed-in-the-wool conservatives pine for the good old days, they mean really OLD DAYS __ as in before the Civil War.

I can see where this is going.
Brother, the true colors are showing.
Voting is a constitutionally protected right.
But truth is . . . that’s only if you're white.

Oh yeah!
______________________________________________________________

I am doing what I can to address the destruction of our democratic system.

Without taking back our government, nothing will change.

In my new book, An Unlikely Truth, I offer an electoral strategy which I believe can effectively remove the crooks and liars from office, and begin to restore representative democracy to America.
An Unlikely Truth (Literary Vagabond Books) is now available worldwide in every popular ebook format and as a deluxe edition paperback.

An Unlikely Truth is a critical read for anyone who shares the progressive vision of a more peaceful, more humane, more democratic America.

______________________________________________________________


[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]